Rose made a face, but didn’t object. She had pointedly ignored Ruben’s comment about the cookie (to be fair, she hadn’t noticed him having a cookie, but to be equally fair he probably wasn’t stupid enough to his someone in the middle of the commonroom without their consent) but Marissa’s direct request for her to not do what Marissa had dubbed ‘the Scary Rose thing’ was a direct request so she sat back down, glaring right back at Ruben. She liked her yearmate, but she wasn’t exactly sure she wanted him around if Marissa was this upset. Rose actually wasn’t sure why Marissa was in the commonroom at all. The other girl had drawn her knees up to her chest and was looking much sadder than Rose had seen her in a long time - possibly ever. Rose’s hand twitched involuntarily. She wanted to hex the living daylights out of the person who had done this.

And then Marissa explained what was going on and Rose got even angrier. Camilla Baird? Rose had Spellwork and Arithmancy with Camilla and could honestly say that she had never been impressed by the older girl. She wasn’t the last person Rose would have expected this from, but she also wasn’t in the top five most probable culprits list. Camilla Baird had hit Marissa? Rose was visibly fuming again. That was it. Camilla was dead. Rose was going to hunt her down and -

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and with a flush of extreme embarrassment the blonde girl realized that the cookies had begun levitating and whizzing around in clearly distressed circles. Marissa knew that Rose’s accidental magic still wasn’t in control, even in their fifth year, but Rose wasn’t exactly prone to advertising the fact. It usually wasn’t a problem at school because Rose didn’t usually get this angry at school. The very few times it had happened had all been triggered by particularly unpleasant owls from her father, usually about Dade. It happened not infrequently at home because Rose frequently got into verbal sparring matches with her father at home. Her stepmother and stepsister less so, but Rose was pretty sure that was because they were both scared of her, or at the very least unwilling to engage her blatant hostility.

“Sorry,” she muttered, cheeks still pink, as she tried to calm herself down. She didn’t know how to make accidental magic stop without getting less angry.

If Marissa genuinely thought that she could get away with continuing to talk about cookies now - well, he’d have to educate her on that. Ruben had a good eye for spotting signs of violence, in large... more

Rose sat down, and Marissa felt a little better. She’d heard stories about Ruben and how capable he was in Dueling Club; in fact, she’d heard most of it from Rose. Imagining the two of them getting... more

Ruben made a noncommittal grunt in the back of his throat, acknowledging her response. He wasn’t completely surprised that Marissa hadn’t hit back, but the surprised way that she had answered him... more

It was entirely unsurprising that Marissa hadn’t hit Camilla back; it had been clear that Ruben didn’t know her very well when he’d asked. Of the two girls, Rose was infinitely more likely to punch... more

Somehow, Marissa’s idea of Not A Big Deal did not seem to match what her friends thought, because now there were exploding cookies everywhere. The snickerdoodle in her hands turned into a cloud of... more

Still fuming at the opposite half of the room as if the now cookie-particle-clogged air had become some kind of enemy, Ruben listened with only partial attention to Rose's rant. Not that the other... more